Determined Somerset knock out Warriors

Somerset got off to a poor start losing Peter Trego in the very first over. This probably made Craig Kieswetter a lot more cautious than usual. He proceeded to take up the role of the anchor. He remained very steady and did not try too many risky strokes. That allowed Roelof van der Merwe to explode at the other end. Merwe has come a long way as a batsman. The mindless slogging has reduced considerably and Somerset have placed a lot of faith in him. He has come in regularly at number three and did his job once again today. His innings gave the impetus for Somerset as they raised the tempo but he failed to make the start count and fell playing an ambitious shot. James Hildreth took some time to settle in and was just beginning to open up when he top edged a sweeep of Johan Botha.

The Warriors captain was very miserly on a track that was offering considerable assistance to spin. He received good support from the experienced Nicky Boje. The big turn that was there on the track forced Botha to throw the ball to JJ Smuts too but the latter could not make full use of the help on offer. He did not allow the ball to bite the surface and that allowed the batsmen to work him around quite easily.

With Kieswetter playing the waiting role, someone had to take the initiative to up the ante and Jos Buttler was the right man for the job. He struck some clean blows in the end overs to help Somerset in the slog overs. Kieswetter found it difficult to change gears but remained busy throughout to finish with an unbeaten fifty.

A score of 146 was good one but not something that was out of the reach of Warriors. They needed a good start and both the openers, JJ Smuts and Ashwell Prince, started cautiously. The latter was the first to fall as he was done in by a good slower one by Steve Kirby. Colin Ingram and Smuts built a good stand after that with Ingram doing what Roelof had done for Somerset. He perished soon after and that started a mini slide. Smuts played an ugly swipe to a slider from Kartik and Kelly smuts missed a similar quicker one. Botha too fell going for the big hit as the asking rate climbed up.

Craig Thyssen and Nicky Boje got he Warriors back in the hunt with some adventurous hitting but Alfonso Thomas found the right time to strike, picking up two wickets in the end overs without conceding too many. That was the final nail in the coffin for the Warriors. They did not have enough firepower in the lower order and were found wanting when the pressure mounted.

The loss by 12 runs also meant that though they had the same number of points as KKR, their run rate dipped below Kolkata thereby ending all their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage. The Warriors were at the top of the table before the game but find themselves out of the tournament after it. That is something that is going to be very difficult to digest for the team from South Africa.

Somerset showed a lot of grit in the crunch game and earned their spot in the semi-finals along with Mumbai and New South Wales.